Mobile market in ASEAN is developing fast, and with the big populations of the member states there’s always a question of huge numbers. And what’s that got to do with accounting?

We’ve already seen for some years a shift of focus in western countries such as Sweden, from computers to mobiles. This shift has pushed manufacturers of accounting and analysing software, banking services etc to develop products for mobiles to an increasing extent. Above all, the younger entrepreneurs demands access to accounting and other business matters in their mobiles, rather than in a clumsy computer.

I see a close connection between developing accounting standards for SME within ASEAN and adjusting from start for digital performance based on mobile technique, since smart phones nowadays are widely spread among Asian people, probably to a much higher extent than owning a computer.

All this makes news from an international operator such as Telenor highly interesting.

Telenor sees great possibilities

Telenor is one of the world’s major mobile operators with close to 200 million subscribers in 13 markets. Telenor is majority-owned by the Norwegian state, but half of the revenue comes from Asia and the largest revenue from a single market comes from Thailand – more than 14 % of the total revenue. The prospects is understandable in the perspective of following numbers.

Telenor operates in Thailand by a majority ownership in the Thai mobile operator DTAC, which is the second largest operator in the country with 25 million subscribers of a population of 68 million. DTAC provides both 3G and 4G.

Within the ASEAN Community Telenor operates, apart from Thailand, also in Malaysia (DiGi) and Myanmar (Telenor).

DiGi is the third largest operator in Malaysia with 12 million subscribers of a population of 30 million. DiGi provides both 3G and 4G, and has Malaysia’s widest network of 4G.

In Myanmar Telenor also have 12 million subscribers of a population of 54 million, but there’s no ranking yet for this new market. Telenor provides 2G and 3G in Myanmar initially.

For each country the number of subscribers applies to the third quarter of 2015, and the population sizes applies to 2015.

Digitalized administration

The background described above shows good conditions for developing and providing digital services connected to business administration, including accounting and reporting. Will the ASEAN legislators make use of this?

Comment

January 24, 2016

Mr. Marcus Adaktusson, Head of Communication Asia, commented to me yesterday that Norway “…is still the largest market for Telenor in terms of revenues (some 20 %)”. Bangkok Post has changed the related article’s wording from “the largest proportion” to “a large proportion” regarding Thailand’s contribution to Telenor.

The correction does, however, not change the interesting core message of neither the Bangkok Post article or this post!